Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers

Clifton Blue Parker

McFarland, Oct 2, 2015 - Sports & Recreation - 334 pages

The Waner brothers, Paul and Lloyd--also known as "Big Poison" and "Little Poison"--played together for fourteen seasons in the same Pittsburgh outfield in the 1920s and 1930s. More than half a century after retiring, they still rank as the best-hitting brothers in major league history with a combined 5,611 hits--517 more than the three Alou brothers, 758 more than the three DiMaggio brothers, and 1,400 more than the five Delahanty brothers. And both Waners are in the Hall of Fame, the only playing brothers so honored.

This work tells the story of the Waner brothers from their early lives in Oklahoma through their playing days, which included a World Series against the legendary 1927 New York Yankees. It is also the story of two American eras: the Roaring Twenties and the Depression years. Both put up impressive numbers individually: Paul amassed 3,152 hits, and his .333 lifetime average ranks among the highest ever in the game. Lloyd, a lifetime .316 hitter, collected 2,459 hits, and had it not been for health problems, he might have cleared the 3,000 hit milestone as well. Together, they were baseball heroes.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• 1 Corncob Balls and Branch Bats: 7
• 2 Go West Young Seal: 23
• 3 Smoky City Blues: 37
• 4 Roaring Baseball: 42
• 5 Big and Little Poison: 65
• 6 Appalachian Stomp: 84
• 7 Rough Seas for the Pirate Ship: 103
• 8 The Cruel Business: 113
• 9 The Exploding Universe: 127
• 10 The Return of the Dead Ball: 136
• 11 Pennant Hopes and Misadventures: 145
• 12 The Curiosity of the League: 154
• 13 Celebrating the Common Man: 161
• 14 The Bambinos Last Hurrah: 168
• 15 Hoisting the Black Flag: 180
• 16 The Last Great One: 185
• 17 Shadow Ball and the Gloamin: 193
• 18 Requiem for a Lost Season: 207
• 19 Go Gently Into the Night: 216
• 20 Farewell Steel City: 227
• 21 A Hallowed Hitsmith: 237
• 22 Wearying War Years: 247
• 23 End of Encores: 257
• 24 The Professor of Batting: 264
• 25 Little Poison Goes Home: 284
• 26 Without My Spikes: 294
• 27 From Corncobs to Cooperstown: 300
• Career Statistics: 311
• Sources: 313
• Index: 321

About the author

Clifton Blue Parker is a magazine editor at the University of California, Davis, and a former newspaper journalist and Congressional press secretary. A member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), he lives in Davis, California.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers
• Author: Clifton Blue Parker
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: McFarland, 2015
• ISBN: 0786481404, 9780786481408
• Length: 334 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / General; Sports & Recreation / Baseball / History